Meet the Top 10 Airbnb Hosts in San Francisco

The big hosts don’t like the proposed Airbnb-friendly law, because it will decimate their current listings. The irony being that these are some of the better hosts in the city.

— Jason Clampet

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While traveling the world after selling his tech company, Sean Conway wanted to rent out his San Francisco pad on Airbnb, but found it a hassle to manage long distance.

That spurred him to co-found Airenvy, a company that brings a Silicon Valley playbook to the burgeoning field of managing Airbnb rentals on behalf of hosts.

Launched in January, Airenvy lists the most Airbnb properties in San Francisco: 59. It takes a 12 percent commission for handling everything from cleaning to keys. It has 15 employees and a dozen vendors.

His game plan: refine the model, then take it national and global.

“A lot of people really love Airbnb, thrive on it and have really neat experiences,” Conway said. “I want to help facilitate that.”

The top 10 San Francisco hosts on Airbnb collectively control 248 listings, or 5.2 percent of all the places for rent. They include property managers, hacker hostels and even hotels.

The No. 2 host by listings, Come2SF, with 51 houses and apartments, is also a property management company.

“With all these new revelations like the (proposed) law by (San Francisco Supervisor) David Chiu, I prefer to be on the low-key side,” he said. “We are going to look for another kind of rentals, more like long-term.”

No. 3 is the HackerHome Network — four houses in Dogpatch, Mission Bay and the Sunset and on Telegraph Hill with bunk beds for tech types who pay about $70 a night for crash space, copacetic roommates and a communal vibe.

Nos. 4, 5, and 6 by numbers of properties are somewhat mysterious. They may be property management firms, but don’t provide company names. Instead, Lois (23 properties), Annette (21 properties) and Maria (14 properties) identify themselves as individuals who enjoy hosting and meeting new people.